1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mechanized bakery equipment, and more particularly to machinery for the automatic makeup of bread dough into dough pieces ready for baking in a continuous operation, the specific equipment being readily adaptable for the production of at least two different kinds of bread.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Bread or bread-like products have historically been by far the most important of all food staples. The growing mobility of large segments of population from one region to another as well as from country to country has brought with it corresponding changes in the bread eating habits of local populations. The bread producers, therefore, hve found it to be a necessity to offer as many different products as possible. However, this desire to offer a variety of bread products conflicts sharply with the rising tendency towards mechanization of all bakery operations. Normally, mechanization is only then possible and profitable, when one particular kind of bread is to be produced on a continuous basis.
Known mechanized equipment for continuous baking operations is commonly arranged in the form of a processing line, particularly in the case of dough piece makeup equipment which shapes the dough pieces for baking. Such a dough makeup line may include a dough divider at the beginning of the line, followed by a dough piece rounder and a fermenting unit or proofer from where the dough pieces move to dough piece molding equipment, including stretch molding and roll-molding devices and devices for the transfer of the molded dough pieces to baking palettes.
An important prerequisite for this type of dough piece makeup machinery is that it is to operate fully automatically and on a continuous basis. It follows that equipment which is capable of meeting these requirements is normally limited to one particular kind of bread, or, if it is adaptable to different kinds of bread, requires an extensive shutdown and complicated modifications.
The different kinds of bread which are to be produced, if an adequate variety of breads are to be offered, differ not only in terms of the types of flour used, they also call for widely differing weights and shapes. For instance, while the general preference in Europe goes to long breads such as panned loaves, southern countries have a preference for flat breads, for example.